UPDATE (6/2/21): Easthill Frome - Councillor Resignation at "Farcical" Mendip District Council Meeting

 

Lib Dems "Run" Mendip Council

UPDATE (6/2/21): Now includes links to Somerset Independents, SomersetLive and Private Eye articles relating to Mendip District Council and Frome.

Members of Somerset Independents attended last night's Mendip District Council Scrutiny meeting (Monday 16th Nov 2020). The meeting was run virtually (link here to the Microsoft Teams recording). 

The meeting may well go down in history as one of the most chaotic in a Somerset council.

The Scrutiny Board is supposed to hold the Lib Dem-run "Cabinet" or "Executive" to account. But it does not, and it has not. During the meeting, even the Chair and former Chair (Lib Dem Councillor Damon Hooton) admitted that it does not do this - whether Lib Dems or Tories are in control of the Council.

Then the Chair, Councillor Philip Ham, quit, saying it was "ludicrous" and "farcical". It is the same Cllr Ham mentioned by Private Eye in relation to his planning application and land near Sandys Hill Lane, also in Frome.

Easthill, Frome
Isn't this beautiful?
(pictures used with permission of owner)

Residents local to Easthill spoke at the meeting. Somerset Independents is standing with them against this disgraceful development.

Denise Wyatt

Our County Council Candidate for Frome Denise Wyatt spoke to support them in their campaign to stop the Lib Dem-controlled Mendip District Council from building 77 dwellings on this prized haven for flora and fauna. Denise's speech is at this link here.

What Denise said has also been reported by Daniel Mumby via the Somerset County Gazette here. In response to Denise and the local residents who also spoke, the Council Leader, Lib Dem Councillor Ros Wyke, spouted her usual meaningless platitudes such as: "My administration wants to listen and reflect" and "We welcome transparency".

Councillor Wyke's claims go against the evidence. The Council's External Auditor Ernst and Young is conducting an investigation into the evidence that Somerset Independents has provided that Mendip District Council's property investment is lacking openness and transparency!

Leader of Somerset Independents, Andrew Pope, who spoke against the development at last week's Full Council meeting, to support local residents (speech at this link here), says now:

Andrew Pope

"Somerset Independents was formed to stand up for Somerset residents, and to stand up for wildlife. Since we learned of Mendip District Council's plans and local residents' outrage and surprise, we have supported the residents in their fight.

Somerset Independents live-tweeted from the meeting, so you can go and read what happened on our Twitter feed here.

The meeting was a shambles. As we live-tweeted, and as reported by BBC Radio Somerset today, the Chair of the Scrutiny Board, Tory Councillor Philip Ham, resigned as Chair. The former Chair Lib Dem Damon Hooton, who is now Chair of the Planning Board, told him to "suck it up"! What a disgrace!

There was very little proper order or control, with Vice-Chair Councillor Chris Inchley forced to chair the meeting when Councillor Ham quit.

Councillors spoke over each other and there was no proper debate because Lib Dem Councillor Sam Phripp and other councillors supported his bad idea that there be no debate at this meeting.

The whole point of the meeting was to listen to residents' concerns. Instead of doing that, the Lib Dem, Tory and Green councillors bickered amongst themselves and the Lib Dem councillors tried to stop debate. That's why we don't like the Westminster parties - the Lib Dems and Greens put themselves ahead of residents in their dodgy backroom deals. The Mendip Tories' form of opposition is also pathetic.

Why don't the Mendip Greens and Tories provide proper opposition?

What was the "informal" arrangement between the Lib Dems and Greens that Green Group Leader Councillor Shane Collins admitted to the BBC's David Garmston live on TV in 2019, just after the Mendip Council elections?

Was it a coincidence that in so many Mendip wards, the Lib Dems and Greens did not stand against each other? NO!

It was another dodgy backroom deal, just like Easthill, but this time, instead of the integrity of the elections, its residents and wildlife who are losing out! I thought the Greens were supposed to fight for wildlife, not have housing built on it! All the while, brownfield sites like Saxonvale remain derelict! We've spoken out on that too!

All the evidence points towards an electoral pact, and hidden deals between the Lib Dems and Greens, but did they tell the public? No. We've asked them to but they have refused. 

Did they tell the local residents that a vote for a Green was a vote for Lib Dem and vice versa? NO!

The public need to know what the Lib Dem-Green deal was! Since then, the Greens have gone easy on the Lib Dems - with all Green councillors even voting for the Lib Dem budget.

They've gone easy on the Lib Dems on Easthill too. Why? They are supposed to be in opposition, not in a cosy cartel!

Councillor Philip Ham summed the Scrutiny meeting up when he said it was "Farcical". He quit because he said that the Scrutiny Board was once again being stopped from doing its job of scrutinising the Council. He was right!

The Somerset Lib Dems don't like being challenged and they have regularly ignored members of the public, including members of Somerset Independents, when they have spoken at their meetings. Green and Tory councillors at those meetings also ignored our representations on behalf of Somerset residents. We even chased them up.

So it's no surprise that the Lib Dems don't want to listen to Easthill residents either.

We will continue to stand up and stand with these residents and with the wildlife. As Denise said when she spoke, this development must be stopped by Mendip District Council.

Denise has confirmed with the Council directly that the land has NOT been sold yet. They must not sell it. It must be saved for Frome."

 

Easthill, Frome